Relaxing Ralph!

I just wanted to show that if you are consistent and treat your dog like a dog and not a human, then they can start to relax and balance themselves out!

Ralph the dalmatian came to us to be home-boarded and for three days he paced and whined continually in the house, mainly because he wasn't allowed to climb onto us and on the furniture and he did not know what to do with himself! Ralphs owners love him and only want to do the best for him but this love can be confusing to a dog who mistakes it for weakness!  After a week of reinforcement, daily strenuous walks in a dog environment and clear rules and boundaries, the result was a dog that was happy to be on his own and sleeping peacefully! A great result!

Your dog does not think in the sense that we do, he / she reacts to situations without considering others and will do whatever his DNA tells him to do! So if you let him jump on the seats that humans sit on and let him climb over you, don't be suprised to see a dog who will not do as he is told or in some cases who becomes aggressive and dominant!

Ralph here can go straight back to how he was before, it is up to his owners to treat him as a dog and to not encourage the behaviour that will lead to him being hard work to control and not a great companion that he can be!

Steve

Taming Ralph!

This is Ralph the challenging dalmatian that I'm currently looking after! He is a typical dalmatian from all that I've gleaned and not being funny but in dog terms, he is not the brightest star in the sky!

Ralph is only 15 months old and still very immature. This has been compounded with his owners allowing him to much freedom and not setting rules for him to follow. He is not a nasty dog and after encouragement from me the family have had him castrated which has helped massively with his behaviour! He has a number of very challenging issues which are stopping him from fulfilling his potential as a really good family pet!

On the plus side he is a loving, happy and non-aggressive dog who is a pleasure to walk and doesn't stray to far away which is great! He plays lovely with other dogs and in the video on the right, he met a Weimaraner who was a similar age and they had the time of their lives, like two land sharks so no worries there!

His issues are:

1.  Stealing food and any other items to hand including TV remote controls
2.  Jumping up and with his claws and size this is not a good habit to encourage!
3.  Chewing especially his bedding
4.  Whining continuously with an inability to relax
5.  Poor discipline and lack of knowledge of commands

So from day 1 he has been challenged with commands of sit and wait before going out or receiving his food and this has proved very challenging indeed for Ralph who will not sit and wait for longer than a few seconds before having to be corrected. He is not allowed into the kitchen when food is being prepared and this again has resulted in Ralph being challenged to the extreme as unlike other dogs, he doesn't relax and just watch from the door, but just waits and tries again and again to see if anything changes. The response to this has been to up the consequence for entering the kitchen and a short spray from a plant sprayer has the desired effect with Ralph reacting to its presence on most occasions and accepts his place.

The chewing is a work in progress as this bowl will testify!  and will need to be carried on by the family, with his being offered acceptable alternatives and challenged over any attempt to take anything that he is not allowed! This coupled with him being secured when they are not able to watch him should result in a more reliable response in the future and allow him to be given more freedom as he grows up and matures.



The commands and discipline need to be kept up from now on so that they become ingrained and "NO" means no and "SIT" means sit until you are released as does "WAIT" which means to stay but on a casual basis whereas "STAY" is a firm command to not move until specifically released! I would use "WAIT" before getting into a car and when offering food, that sort of thing whereas "STAY" is a more formal command for not entering somewhere or whilst doing something to the dog that he may not want!

The behaviour in the house needs to be permanently addressed, so that every whine is challenged (Unless as I found out it means I want to go to the toilet!!) and the dog is encouraged to sleep on the floor for the next 6 months at least, so it learns to be around the family without being on them and demanding attention constantly. Couple this with a good exercise regime and plenty of time in the garden by himself and the separation anxiety  issues that he has will go away!

Steve

Ralph the unruly Dalmation!

Ralph is a young medium energy Dalmation dog who has a past history of hooliganism before his owners made the correct decision to have him done!

The owners except that they have a problem with his behaviour and have no remotes in the house because Ralph has eaten them all!

I went to their house and as I walked in I was met by an excited dog who immediately stood up on his back legs and put his front legs on my chest. This is classic of him trying to claim me and as I pushed him down he repeated this 4 or 5 times more until I finally got my message through to him!

I asked to sit down as the next trick he would try is to mug me and to claim me and my space! As i sat down a very rude dog took 10 times of being moved away before he went and jumped straight on the sofa and lay with his paws on his female owners lap and demanded fuss which he promptly got!

I took him home and after a run on a training line in the paddock I used a lead to bring him into the house and took him calmly round the lounge before allowing him off lead. He continually tried to jump on the sofa and this is not something we allow and is always an issue with dogs who are tolerated on furniture. He soon got the idea and lay down once or twice but never settled. He whined and whimpered continuously like a spoiled child! Dogs like Ralph who have no rules and boundaries are not at fault as they don't know any different, but it's our job as the brains of the outfit to ensure that they understand the rules and more importantly abide by them!

Anyway that was day one with Ralph who I can see even at this early stage is a nice dog but with no manners and I think with consistent leadership and my formula for a happy dog we can make Ralph a great dog and a lovely pet to have in the house!

Happy training
Steve

Bailey and Riley

Bailey the Golden retriever spent a couple of weeks with us recently and as lovely a dog as he potentially is, two things stood between him being a great dog and him being hard work! Yes my soap box subject of castrating male dogs! Right from the start I realised that it was irrelevant what I did as until he had those hormones removed from him, nothing was going to work!

Granted he was being treated for mange and so he had to be kept from other dogs which didn't help, but even so he displayed all of the usual traits of the non neutered dog, being headstrong, difficult to recall especially when he sees something he wants to investigate, gets involved in spats with other dogs due to his hormones and attitude and when out he ran ahead without looking back and had to be on a long line as I just couldn't trust him to come back, which has only happened to me twice with over 60 dogs that I've cared for!

that said he could be a top dog and all it would take is a small operation to solve the problem, within weeks he would be a different animal and training would start to take effect. In the house Bailey was always looking and thinking, he took a long time to relax which is typical of a stressed dog! After this operation he would settle much more quickly and be more relaxed!

Riley waiting patiently for his dinner!

Riley the Springer Spaniel is a lovely dog that had issues until he was castrated and most have now gone, particularly the humping of other dogs which was quite an issue at one point! He is typical of Spaniels in that they display an amazing joy of life which is infectious. They will explore everything and go anywhere, Riley would have made a fabulous police sniffer dog with his drive and motivation he could have been a cracker!

I was walking him in the woods the other day when I saw that he was stuck by his ear, something that is not uncommon with them getting trapped in Stingers etc. As I got nearer I realised that he was stuck by the ear on barbed wire! After 10 minutes of trying to unravel him and with no tools on me and no help around, I checked that it was only hair holding him and not through his ear, so I decided I to chew it off and spent a pleasant few minutes biting through ear hair and spitting it out! Anyway job done and Riley freed! The moral of the story is to perhaps consider bringing a leatherman or Swiss army knife with you on the run so at least you have the option to do something if your dog is trapped!